Washington Foreign Press Center Briefing "SelectUSA Investment Summit"

MODERATOR: So good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center’s briefing on the upcoming SelectUSA Investment Summit. My name is Jake Goshert. I’m the moderator for today’s briefing. A few reminders. The briefing is on the record. We will post a transcript of the briefing on our website, which is fpc.state.gov. For journalists who are joining us via Zoom, please take a moment now to rename yourself in the chat window with your name, your outlet, and your country. Our briefer today is from the International Trade Administration, is Arun Venkataraman, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. Following his opening remarks, I will open the floor to questions. But with that, I’m going to turn it over to Assistant Secretary Venkataraman. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Thank you, Jake. Good afternoon, everyone. It’s a great pleasure to be with – here with you all today. My name is Arun Venkataraman and I am the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and the Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Under the leadership of Secretary Gina Raimondo, the Department of Commerce is at the forefront of tackling our nation’s most pressing economic and national security priorities, including those related to emerging technologies, supply chains, manufacturing, innovation, and workforce development. For those of you who might not be familiar with the International Trade Administration, or ITA: We are the part of the U.S. Department of Commerce that promotes U.S. exports, attracts inbound investment, protects industry competitiveness and critical U.S. technologies, and defends U.S. industries against unfair trade. The ITA team spans over 2,300 trade and business experts who are strategically located across 100 locations across the United States and in over 80 markets around the world. Simply put, our mission is to promote inclusive economic opportunity, specifically by creating opportunities for American companies to sell and do business overseas. The team of commercial diplomats and trade experts that I lead helps U.S. businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors grow their global business sales through exports and improved U.S. competitiveness and advance the priorities of the Biden-Harris administration. The team is also charged with helping to attract inbound investment, in particular, supporting foreign direct investment in the United States. And I am proud to say for the 12th consecutive year, the United States has been ranked the number one destination for foreign direct investment, according to Kearney 2024 FDI Confidence Index report. Now, we are proud of this recognition of the United States as the best place to do business with the world’s most attractive consumer market, strong financial markets and IP protections, talented workforce, best-in-class research, and academic institutions. And through our SelectUSA program, we are proud to play a key role in ensuring that the United States remains an attractive destination for investors to see success in the companies, services, and products they have worked so hard to see thrive and grow. Our SelectUSA program is the U.S. federal government program dedicated to attracting and retaining foreign direct investment in the U.S. economy. The program is dedicated to facilitating and promoting impactful business investment into the United States in order to create jobs, spur economic growth, and promote U.S. competitiveness. SelectUSA provides two primary services to clients. The first is for economic development organizations at the state, regional, local, and tribal levels. The second is providing services to existing and potential foreign businesses with existing operations in the United States or those that are planning to enter the U.S. market. Since its inception in 2011, SelectUSA has assisted thousands of clients, including economic development organizations, domestic firms, international companies, and facilitating over $200 billion in client-verified investment, supporting more than 200 jobs across the United States and its territories. To support that work and expand on the assistance provided, SelectUSA organizes the United States premier event dedicated to foreign direct investment, the SelectUSA Investment Summit, which is just a few days away, which will be June 23rd to the 26th at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. The investment summit plays a vital role in attracting and facilitating business investment and job creation by raising awareness about the wide range of investment opportunities in the United States and enabling necessary direct connection between investors and U.S. economic development organizations. Essentially, it gives these prospective investors an opportunity to date the states in one place, all under one roof. The SelectUSA Investment Summit typically draws more than 4,000 attendees, and that’s directly helped generate more than $110 billion in new U.S. investment projects supporting over 85,000 jobs across the United States and its territories. Now, allow me to give you a few highlights on what to expect over these coming four days. This year, the 2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit, we anticipate having nearly 5,000 attendees. That includes over 2,300 foreign investor companies that we expect to attend, representing over 90 foreign markets. And for the first time ever, we are incredibly proud to have all 56 U.S. states and territories participating in this investment summit. From those states and territories, we will have 11 U.S. governors as well as the mayor of Washington, D.C. We will also have six U.S. cabinet members and senior White House officials participating. We will also be joined by over 20 chiefs of mission, including 18 U.S. ambassador-led delegations. The event will comprise over 140 speakers on our main stage and academy breakout sessions. And we will have over 1,000 people attending from economic development organizations around the country. The SelectUSA Investment Summit will also be a platform for never-before-released announcements by foreign investors spanning multiple sectors, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, clean energy, and more. These companies will be detailing their investment expansion plans in the United States. This year, SelectUSA anticipates more than $1 billion in investment deals to be announced at this event. Additionally, as some of you are aware, President Biden identified supply chain gaps as a vital economic security challenge in the earliest days of this administration. The Department of Commerce through the SelectUSA program has been prioritizing its work to attract investment into those critical sectors that meet this challenge by mitigating supply chain gaps, including in semiconductors, clean energy and batteries, critical minerals, and biopharma. SelectUSA is helping to build a resilient supply chain that delivers on President Biden’s agenda to protect American technological leadership for the coming decades, and we have diligently woven these topics into the investment summit agenda itself. SelectUSA continues to build on landmark legislation from this administration, including the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and the Inflation Reduction Act, to drive nearly $100 billion in investments in U.S. supply chains since the start of the Biden-Harris administration. With this sharp focus, this inward investment into critical supply chains in the last three years accounts for over 75 percent of SelectUSA deal value since the beginning of the administration, and almost half of the entire deal value since SelectUSA’s founding. We are incredibly excited to be on pace to host our largest U.S. SelectUSA Investment Summit ever and I sincerely hope that you are considering being there to cover this incredible event. I look forward to discussing more about SelectUSA and the summit in the Q&A portion. Thank you for taking the time to be here. MODERATOR: Thank you for your remarks, sir. I would now like to open it up for questions. Reminder to journalists joining us on Zoom, please be sure your screen name on Zoom includes your name, your outlet, and your country, and if you have a question, please raise the – click the “raise hand” icon at the bottom of your screen. But we’re going to start here in the room. Do we have any questions? We’ll go first here. QUESTION: Thank you, Assistant Secretary. This is Diyar Kurda working for Rudaw Media Network. It’s a Kurdish TV in Iraqi Kurdistan. This year as the U.S. seeks to have 360-degree relations with Iraq, there were a lot of discussions, trade discussions between Iraq and the United States, and both countries signed a lot of trade deals in the trade show in the United States. So apparently this year the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, she encouraged the Iraqi companies to register their companies at the SelectUSA request. Do you have any numbers, how many Iraqi and Kurdish companies are registered? There are companies that there’s an interest here. And overall, what’s the Iraqi and Kurdistan companies’ investment in the USA? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Sorry, I don’t have those figures for you right now. But I wanted to highlight the value of two-way investment with partners like Iraq. We have seen, whenever we work with our partners, that the investments they make in the United States and the investments U.S. companies make in those countries are central to underline the strategic relationships that we have. So we strongly support the participation in the investment summit, but I don’t have the exact data for you right now. QUESTION: And the summit this year? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: I can’t speak there. QUESTION: Okay. And another question. As we are speaking about the foreign investment in the USA, I want to take the opportunity to ask about the U.S. investment in Iraq and in Iraqi Kurdistan. We know that there are a lot of U.S. companies, oil companies, that are working in Kurdistan region oil sector. But due to the oil export stoppage, they faced a lot of challenges and – even it’s been a year, more than a year. They can’t do the work, operate as they did before. What’s the Department of Commerce takeaway on that issue? And how you are – how are you engaging with the Iraq and Kurdistan region to resolve this issue? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Sure. I would say that, first and foremost, we work very closely with the Government of Iraq to create the right environment for not just our oil companies, but for our companies across sector to be able to contribute to Iraq’s growth trajectories. So from where we sit, we address a number of barriers, a number of challenges to doing business in Iraq. We work very closely with the government to identify those sectors where we think there’s potential for American companies to invest. We know that the needs in Iraq are deep. We know that the economic development policy priorities of the government are policy priorities that our American companies can contribute to. And so we continue to work with them to create the environment for our companies to be able to succeed there. Because we know that when our companies succeed in Iraq, Iraq will succeed in achieving its objectives. MODERATOR: Okay. We’ll go over here first. QUESTION: Thank you. I’m Patricia Vasconcellos from SBT TV network in Brazil. On Monday, there is a panel in the summit with focus on the Western Hemisphere. But what can you anticipate here regarding that data and trends from foreign direct investment from this region, and particularly Brazil? You mentioned here 2,300 foreign investors in the summit, so from them how many are from this region, specifically from Brazil? And adding here another question, if possible, particularly on Brazil, which sectors are in FDI’s top list here in the U.S.? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: So as we are still registering people to attend the summit, I don’t have exact numbers for you. But I would say that the Western Hemisphere is our neighborhood. This is the area where we have the most free trade agreements. This is where the vast majority of our trade is around the world. And when it comes to investment, American investment in the hemisphere is historic. And as you know very well, American companies have been in Brazil for over 100 years and are part of the fabric of Brazilian society. And so we see Brazilian companies investing in the United States, including in sectors like clean energy, that really build on the strength of these two economies that are complimentary in ways that promote our shared objectives in areas like combatting climate change. QUESTION: (Inaudible) on this subject. Could you address this a little bit regarding this region, South America? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Yes, one of the things that we know in South America is, like the rest of the world, we are all engaged in the same struggle to both combat climate change and address the adverse effects of climate change in our economies, and particularly in those vulnerable economies that have to face the consequences of climate change and weather disruptions that result from that. One of the things that we are doing is working with a number of countries in South America through a program called Impact* to partner with local governments and to create opportunities for American companies to help these governments mitigate those impacts of climate change and position themselves and position ourselves to address the future and a future where we have to do more with a sense of urgency to fight climate change. And so we know that at the end of the day, those solutions will not come from government, but will come only from partnerships with the private sector. So facilitating those partnerships is a priority of our work throughout the region. MODERATOR: Okay. And we’ll go back to Iraq over here. QUESTION: Thank you very much. Thank you for this opportunity. Rahim Rashidi from Kurdistan. Militias in Iraq are continuing their attacks on U.S. brands and businesses. What are your thoughts on this situation? What actions do you expect Iraqi Government to take? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: All I would say on that point is I would defer to my colleagues in the State Department that work very closely with our colleagues in Iraq to address the security situation in that country. MODERATOR: Okay. QUESTION: (Inaudible) this kind of that that will affect of your economic relationship? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: I think in any environment where there are security risks, there are consequences for promoting economic development and growth in that economy. So we look forward to partnering with the Government of Iraq to address that situation in a way that allows for the growth trajectory for Iraq to continue. MODERATOR: Okay. And now we’ll move online to Rusudan from Georgia. Rusudan, if you could un-mute yourself and introduce yourself and ask your question, please. QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you very much for organizing this very important event. And I apologize, I am not able to attend this very important event as I just left a state hearing on – at congress of Georgia. I would like to ask about the level of interest in direct investments in the U.S. from Georgians. If I may ask also to share more about the economic ties between the two countries have strengthened through this platform. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Thank you for the question. I think the centerpiece of our engagement with Georgia is to support Georgia’s efforts to diversify its economy to help it reach new markets and to help it develop trade and economic relations in broader parts of the world. And I think what we have done is to identify opportunities, to showcase opportunities in Georgia to American companies. We’ve led trade missions, particularly in areas like energy, to create opportunities for American companies to do business in Georgia. We are particularly pleased that this year, I believe, we had the largest delegation ever from Georgia, really focusing on a number of high-tech start-ups. And just one point on that, in the SelectUSA Investment Summit, we have a very strong focus on the start-up economy, because we have found over years so many countries do send their start-ups to the United States to beta test their products, to try out their new tools, and then succeed in creating those products, then bringing them back home and becoming unicorns in their home market. We’re very proud of the venture capital market that we have here in the United States, the incredible ecosystem we have that produces and rewards innovation, and we’re proud to see that our friends from Georgia are showing up in full force this year. That’s a large contingent of tech startups. MODERATOR: Reminder: If you’re joining us online, please just click the “raise hand” icon and we can call on you. We have another question in the room. Please introduce yourself and ask your question. QUESTION: Thank you. Dilara Zengin Okay from Anadolu Agency. My question is about Türkiye’s attendance – Türkiye’s attendance at the summit this year. Can you provide an overview of the Turkish companies attending this year’s summit, including the number and the sectors they represent? Also, recently many events and meetings have been held to improve economic ties between Türkiye and the U.S. How does the participation of the Turkish business cycle at this summit reflect on the two countries’ economic relations? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Thank you. I think we are on the cusp of a significant growth and expansion and improvement in relationships between the United States and Türkiye. I think we have seen already a growth in business activity between our two economies. We are incredibly pleased that this year we anticipate having the largest delegation ever from Türkiye to the summit. And I think when you look at that delegation and the composition of that delegation, it really speaks volumes about the depth of this economic relationship, because not only do you see Turkish companies in areas like pharmaceutical and clean energy, but, like, as I mentioned, key supply chain sectors that we need to address, but you also see them in traditional industries, whether it’s metals or advanced manufacturing or glass. And I think what you see with that relationship is you have a deep strategic relationship for over seven decades between our two countries, and the commercial relationship has still so far to go to meet that potential. And so we are very excited about what we see in next few years to really meet that potential to build on what we see as an improvement in Türkiye’s economy going forward. And I think that will create more opportunities for U.S.-Turkish collaboration. MODERATOR: Yes, Vietnam. QUESTION: So about the (inaudible), Vietnamese sent a big delegation to attend, and regarding the (inaudible) process to recognize Vietnam as a market economy. So do you have any updates, information? And how the decision will affect the Vietnam and U.S. relation? Thank you. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: Thank you for the question. I have no updates to share. But I would just note that that is a process that is going through the Commerce Department. It is a quasi-judicial process based on an evaluation of factors laid out in American statutes. So that proceeding will conclude based on the analysis of those factors. QUESTION: Will it affect the Vietnam and U.S. relations? So do you think it’s good or bad? ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: I would just say that the United States and Vietnam have such strong ties, and in fact recently elevated our partnership to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which is historic. And given where we were years ago, we have come to a significant place in that relationship. I think the strength of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship transcends any irritants that we might currently face and is set on a long-term road to success. MODERATOR: Okay, and seeing no more questions, I think I’ll hand it over to you, Assistant Secretary, to offer any final thoughts you might have to the group. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VENKATARAMAN: The last thing I would just say is we view the SelectUSA Investment Summit as really the culmination of a year’s worth of activity where we work very closely with our partner governments and companies in those countries to build ties with American companies, to build ties with the United States. Because we know that as our commercial ties grow and as our commercial ties deepen, they form more of that connective tissue that strengthens the relationship between our countries, that takes our relationships beyond traditional strategic realms into new realms that really strengthen our partnerships for the long term and really make those partnerships more enduring than ever. We’re looking forward to celebrating that next week. We welcome you all to join us. We really do hope to celebrate the number of foreign companies we will be seeing expressing confidence – not just in the United States but in the long-term trajectory of the U.S. market. Thank you. MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Assistant Secretary, and thank you to all the journalists who joined us both here and online. This ends today’s briefing. Thank you.